Methanol fuel is considered as an alternative fuel for internal combustion engines and in the recent past use of methanol fuel has been studied by many researchers. For example, reference is made to W. H. Baisley and C. F. Edwards, presented at IV International Symposium on Alcohol Fuels Technology, Guarja-SP, Brazil, Oct. 5, 1980, wherein discussions are set forth concerning the manner in which a methanol fuel may be used in an internal combustion engine.
One method of using a methanol fuel is to have a system in which hydrogen and carbon monoxide are generated by reforming methanol catalytically into these components. This catalytic generation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen offers a substantial improvement in the thermal efficiency of an internal combustion engine operating on methanol fuel over a similar engine operating on gasoline.
The preferred reforming reaction for methanol is one in which one mole of methanol is converted to one mole of carbon monoxide and two moles of hydrogen. This reaction is an endothermic reaction, and the reformed gas has a 20% higher heating value than the methanol gas. In other words, the reaction to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen is one in which heat is absorbed so that the reaction products contain a higher amount of thermal energy than the products reacted. Burning of these higher energy products in the combustion cylinders of the internal combustion engine produces higher operating temperatures and therefore greater thermal efficiencies in the combustion process. Increase in the thermal efficiencies, of course, results in greater miles per gallon for the methanol fuel being burned.
Other efficiencies are also involved with the burning of a methanol fuel which has at least partially been reformed into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. For example, one of the additional efficiencies is found in the fact that the reformed product has a higher burn rate which thereby permits the internal combustion engine to be operated under leaner air/fuel mixture conditions thereby, once again, improving the overall thermal efficiency of the engine. As an additional matter, the methanol fuel, which is at least partially transformed into the carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas, offers superior antiknock properties when burned in an internal combustion engine. The superior antiknock properties allows the compression ratio of the engine to be increased from 8.5-9.0:1 to a ratio of approximately 14.0:1. This improvement in compression ratio, once again, allows improved thermal efficiency of the engine which all equates to improved miles per gallon of fuel burnt.